Research Question: How can you get rid of bullies and violence in the schools? Contributed by: Noelle Kern
Stateline: Chasing the Bullies Away
In its 2003 report, School Survey on Crime and Safety, the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) found that, during the 1999-2000 school year, 29% of schools reported having more difficulty with student bullying than with any other single discipline problem. A similar 2004 NCES report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, found that, in 2003, students' grade levels were inversely related to the likelihood that they would be bullied, with 14% of sixth-graders, 7% of ninth-graders, and 2% of 12th-graders reporting being bullied at school. Overall, 7% of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported that they had been bullied at school in the last six months, up from 5% in 1999. In 2002, a U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education analysis of school shootings, The Final Report: Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States, found that many perpetrators of school violence reported being bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack. This article describes what the systems are doing to prevent bullying in the schools. A list of recommendations for developing a comprehensive state anti-bullying policy is included in this article.
This article gave me specific data and information on the bullying that takes place in schools across America. It was extremely interesting to read about the systems that many schools are developing to stop the bullying in the schools. I found that section the most educating. I think that the percents that are given in this article are lower than what they truly are because it is not very likely that the students spoke the truth. Many students, especially boys are most likely too proud to admit to being bullied at school. Besides the fact that the percentages may not be completely accurate, I thought that this article was very interesting and informative.
Christie, Kathy. (2005) "Stateline: Chasing the Bullies Away." ERIC digests. 1-6.
Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003-04
This article is about how school violence can lead to a disruptive and threatening environment, physical injury, and emotional stress, all of which can be obstacles to student achievement. Educators have responded to the perceived threat of school violence by implementing programs designed to prevent, deter, and respond to the potential for violence in schools. In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 emphasizes the importance of safe learning environments by requiring schools to have a safety plan in place and to fund programs and practices intended to prevent and reduce violence in schools. The needs and capabilities of schools may differ; thus, schools implement a variety of practices intended to prevent and reduce violence. This study: examines principals' reports of the prevalence of formal practices in public schools designed to prevent or reduce school violence; and describes the distribution of these practices by selected school characteristics. The analysis is based on school-level data reported by principals participating in the school year 2003-2004 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), and complements the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report "Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2006", which reported on the safety and security measures taken by schools in school year 2003-2004. In addition to including updated estimates, this study examines efforts to involve parents in preventing and reducing violence; safety and security procedures; and allowable disciplinary policies. In addition to reporting the data by standard school characteristics, the study presents results by principals' self-reports of community crime. The study found that schools implemented a variety of school violence prevention and reduction practices and that some practices were more commonly used than others. In addition, practices differed by school level and other selected school characteristics. Schools in rural areas showed different patterns of practices than those in urban areas.
I thought that this article was extremely informative about the types of stress students will be under just by being bullied at school. I thought that a lot more schools would have used the types of security to help make their school a better place. For example I was shocked to see that for each of the following safety and security procedures examined, less than half of the schools used any one of the six procedures. Forty-five percent of schools had security officers or police present on a regular basis, 36 percent used one or more security cameras to monitor the school, 21 percent used dogs to conduct random drug checks, 14 percent required students to wear uniforms, 13 percent conducted random sweeps for contraband, and 6 percent performed random metal detector tests on students. I cannot get myself to understand that if school violence is such an issue in our country, then why don't we do more to help prevent it? This article was very well written, and informative but also made me annoyed because I could not understand why schools would not do more to protect their students.
Jekielek, Susan, Brett Brown, Pilar Marin and Laura Lippman. (2007). "Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003:04" ERIC digests. 1-3.
Planning to Ensure our Schools are Safe
According to this article, statistically, school violence is rare and declining, but emotionally it is difficult to reconcile with the fact that anyone would purposefully inflict harm on schools and students. Safety experts advocate a thoughtful approach to the problem, noting that much of the information to base school safety policies upon is already out there. Last October 10, school violence researchers, law enforcement, safety advocates, and victims of previous tragedies gathered to join in a summit convened by the White House one week after Carl Roberts entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and shot and killed five girls, before turning the gun on himself. At the conclusion of the six-hour conference, President Bush remarked, "It seems to me like a lot of focus ought to be on preventing, not just recovery." Bush's observation, while not earth-shattering, underscored one of the most important strategies for district and school administrators. This article presents several strategies for ensuring safety in schools.
This article was very "politically correct". It focused on explaining that we need to prevent violence and bullying before it occurs, and enough with just working on the aftermath. The article states examples from United States History that helps people to understand that if we had done something before the event occurred, it would have been much less likely to occur at all in the first place. This article was basically common sense, and ideas that anyone could think of, but intends to prove that people need to do things ahead of time to prevent future catastrophes.
Dillon, Naomi. (2007). "Planning to Ensure our Schools are Safe". ERIC digests. 1-4.
Zero Tolerance: The Assumptions and the Facts. Education Policy Briefs
This article shows that zero tolerance discipline relies upon a certain set of assumptions about schools, violence, and the outcomes of discipline. In the period of heightened fear about school-based violence during the 1990s, it was not always easy to dispassionately examine the evidence for different strategies of violence prevention. It seemed imperative to put an end to school shootings immediately, and those strategies promising the shortest route to that goal were often the most appealing. In the last few years, however, there has been an enormous amount of study concerning the most promising methods for preventing school violence and promoting effective school learning climates. Unfortunately, much of this evidence has not supported the assumptions that guided the acceptance of zero tolerance discipline in the 1990s. To what extent are the promises and assumptions of zero tolerance borne out by our rapidly increasing knowledge about school violence prevention?
I thought that this article was very intersting. A sentence that stuck out the most to me was "Fifteen years after the rise of zero tolerance ... there is still no credible evidence that zerotolerance suspensions and expulsions are an effective method for changing student behavior." That sentence shows me that we most likely will never find a certain solution to ending school violence. It was interesting to learn the background of zero tolerance and that it first received national attention as the title of a program developed in 1986 by U.S. attorney Peter Nunez in San Diego, impounding seagoing vessels carrying any amount of drugs. I was shocked that that same Zero Tolerance act now has to be used in schools to control crime. Overall I felt that this article was very imformative and had mostly useful and interesting facts, while there was also few facts and points that should have been completely cut out.
Skiba, Russell. (2004). "Zero Tolerance: The Assumptions and the Facts. Education Policy Briefs." ERIC digests. 1-8.
Preventing School Shootings: A Summary of a U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative Report
This article summarizes the U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative: An Interim Report on the Prevention of Targeted Violence in Schools. Targeted violence is a term developed by the Secret Service to refer to any incident of violence where a known attacker selects a particular target prior to the act of violence. Because of the Secret Services expertise in the study and prevention of targeted violence, the Secretary of Education asked the agency to conduct a similar operational study of school shootings. The findings clearly emphasize the importance of paying attention and listening to Americas young people. More than a handful of adults such as parents, teachers, school administrators and counselors, coaches, and law enforcement, can make an important contribution to and play a key role in preventing violence in school grounds. The study found that when young people plan targeted violence they often tell at least one person about their plans, give out specifics before the event takes place, and obtain weapons they need. An important effort in prevention may be to ensure that young people have opportunities to talk with caring adults.
I thought that this article was great, completely infmorative. Since it is based on an official government report, I knew I was getting nothing but facts. It was so interesting to read the document resume. I was interested in reading as to how they could potentially find an attacker. Some key elements that they said to look out for such as how the attacker always talks about their plans, and how they are rarely impulsive. There seems to always be a map as to what the attacker will do. I was also surprised to read that there is no stereotype or profile because the personality and social characteristics of the attacker substantially change. This article was my favorite one to read, and I feel that I got the most out of it as well.
U.S. Government. (2002). "Preventing School Shootings: A Summary of a U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative Report." ERIC digests. 1-7.
Research Question: How can you get rid of bullies and violence in the schools?
Contributed by: Noelle Kern
Stateline: Chasing the Bullies Away
In its 2003 report, School Survey on Crime and Safety, the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) found that, during the 1999-2000 school year, 29% of schools reported having more difficulty with student bullying than with any other single discipline problem. A similar 2004 NCES report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, found that, in 2003, students' grade levels were inversely related to the likelihood that they would be bullied, with 14% of sixth-graders, 7% of ninth-graders, and 2% of 12th-graders reporting being bullied at school. Overall, 7% of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported that they had been bullied at school in the last six months, up from 5% in 1999. In 2002, a U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education analysis of school shootings, The Final Report: Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States, found that many perpetrators of school violence reported being bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack. This article describes what the systems are doing to prevent bullying in the schools. A list of recommendations for developing a comprehensive state anti-bullying policy is included in this article.
This article gave me specific data and information on the bullying that takes place in schools across America. It was extremely interesting to read about the systems that many schools are developing to stop the bullying in the schools. I found that section the most educating. I think that the percents that are given in this article are lower than what they truly are because it is not very likely that the students spoke the truth. Many students, especially boys are most likely too proud to admit to being bullied at school. Besides the fact that the percentages may not be completely accurate, I thought that this article was very interesting and informative.
Christie, Kathy. (2005) "Stateline: Chasing the Bullies Away." ERIC digests. 1-6.
Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003-04
This article is about how school violence can lead to a disruptive and threatening environment, physical injury, and emotional stress, all of which can be obstacles to student achievement. Educators have responded to the perceived threat of school violence by implementing programs designed to prevent, deter, and respond to the potential for violence in schools. In addition, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 emphasizes the importance of safe learning environments by requiring schools to have a safety plan in place and to fund programs and practices intended to prevent and reduce violence in schools. The needs and capabilities of schools may differ; thus, schools implement a variety of practices intended to prevent and reduce violence. This study: examines principals' reports of the prevalence of formal practices in public schools designed to prevent or reduce school violence; and describes the distribution of these practices by selected school characteristics. The analysis is based on school-level data reported by principals participating in the school year 2003-2004 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), and complements the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report "Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2006", which reported on the safety and security measures taken by schools in school year 2003-2004. In addition to including updated estimates, this study examines efforts to involve parents in preventing and reducing violence; safety and security procedures; and allowable disciplinary policies. In addition to reporting the data by standard school characteristics, the study presents results by principals' self-reports of community crime. The study found that schools implemented a variety of school violence prevention and reduction practices and that some practices were more commonly used than others. In addition, practices differed by school level and other selected school characteristics. Schools in rural areas showed different patterns of practices than those in urban areas.
I thought that this article was extremely informative about the types of stress students will be under just by being bullied at school. I thought that a lot more schools would have used the types of security to help make their school a better place. For example I was shocked to see that for each of the following safety and security procedures examined, less than half of the schools used any one of the six procedures. Forty-five percent of schools had security officers or police present on a regular basis, 36 percent used one or more security cameras to monitor the school, 21 percent used dogs to conduct random drug checks, 14 percent required students to wear uniforms, 13 percent conducted random sweeps for contraband, and 6 percent performed random metal detector tests on students. I cannot get myself to understand that if school violence is such an issue in our country, then why don't we do more to help prevent it? This article was very well written, and informative but also made me annoyed because I could not understand why schools would not do more to protect their students.
Jekielek, Susan, Brett Brown, Pilar Marin and Laura Lippman. (2007). "Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003:04" ERIC digests. 1-3.
Planning to Ensure our Schools are Safe
According to this article, statistically, school violence is rare and declining, but emotionally it is difficult to reconcile with the fact that anyone would purposefully inflict harm on schools and students. Safety experts advocate a thoughtful approach to the problem, noting that much of the information to base school safety policies upon is already out there. Last October 10, school violence researchers, law enforcement, safety advocates, and victims of previous tragedies gathered to join in a summit convened by the White House one week after Carl Roberts entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and shot and killed five girls, before turning the gun on himself. At the conclusion of the six-hour conference, President Bush remarked, "It seems to me like a lot of focus ought to be on preventing, not just recovery." Bush's observation, while not earth-shattering, underscored one of the most important strategies for district and school administrators. This article presents several strategies for ensuring safety in schools.
This article was very "politically correct". It focused on explaining that we need to prevent violence and bullying before it occurs, and enough with just working on the aftermath. The article states examples from United States History that helps people to understand that if we had done something before the event occurred, it would have been much less likely to occur at all in the first place. This article was basically common sense, and ideas that anyone could think of, but intends to prove that people need to do things ahead of time to prevent future catastrophes.
Dillon, Naomi. (2007). "Planning to Ensure our Schools are Safe". ERIC digests. 1-4.
Zero Tolerance: The Assumptions and the Facts. Education Policy Briefs
This article shows that zero tolerance discipline relies upon a certain set of assumptions about schools, violence, and the outcomes of discipline. In the period of heightened fear about school-based violence during the 1990s, it was not always easy to dispassionately examine the evidence for different strategies of violence prevention. It seemed imperative to put an end to school shootings immediately, and those strategies promising the shortest route to that goal were often the most appealing. In the last few years, however, there has been an enormous amount of study concerning the most promising methods for preventing school violence and promoting effective school learning climates. Unfortunately, much of this evidence has not supported the assumptions that guided the acceptance of zero tolerance discipline in the 1990s. To what extent are the promises and assumptions of zero tolerance borne out by our rapidly increasing knowledge about school violence prevention?
I thought that this article was very intersting. A sentence that stuck out the most to me was "Fifteen years after the rise of zero tolerance ... there is still no credible evidence that zerotolerance suspensions and expulsions are an effective method for changing student behavior." That sentence shows me that we most likely will never find a certain solution to ending school violence. It was interesting to learn the background of zero tolerance and that it first received national attention as the title of a program developed in 1986 by U.S. attorney Peter Nunez in San Diego, impounding seagoing vessels carrying any amount of drugs. I was shocked that that same Zero Tolerance act now has to be used in schools to control crime. Overall I felt that this article was very imformative and had mostly useful and interesting facts, while there was also few facts and points that should have been completely cut out.
Skiba, Russell. (2004). "Zero Tolerance: The Assumptions and the Facts. Education Policy Briefs." ERIC digests. 1-8.
Preventing School Shootings: A Summary of a U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative Report
This article summarizes the U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative: An Interim Report on the Prevention of Targeted Violence in Schools. Targeted violence is a term developed by the Secret Service to refer to any incident of violence where a known attacker selects a particular target prior to the act of violence. Because of the Secret Services expertise in the study and prevention of targeted violence, the Secretary of Education asked the agency to conduct a similar operational study of school shootings. The findings clearly emphasize the importance of paying attention and listening to Americas young people. More than a handful of adults such as parents, teachers, school administrators and counselors, coaches, and law enforcement, can make an important contribution to and play a key role in preventing violence in school grounds. The study found that when young people plan targeted violence they often tell at least one person about their plans, give out specifics before the event takes place, and obtain weapons they need. An important effort in prevention may be to ensure that young people have opportunities to talk with caring adults.
I thought that this article was great, completely infmorative. Since it is based on an official government report, I knew I was getting nothing but facts. It was so interesting to read the document resume. I was interested in reading as to how they could potentially find an attacker. Some key elements that they said to look out for such as how the attacker always talks about their plans, and how they are rarely impulsive. There seems to always be a map as to what the attacker will do. I was also surprised to read that there is no stereotype or profile because the personality and social characteristics of the attacker substantially change. This article was my favorite one to read, and I feel that I got the most out of it as well.
U.S. Government. (2002). "Preventing School Shootings: A Summary of a U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative Report." ERIC digests. 1-7.